Wellington businesses rejoice as tomorrow's Bledisloe Test gives much-needed boost

The first Bledisloe Cup Test is tipped to pump millions into the Wellington economy but Covid-19 has still had an impact


Anticipation is building in the capital ahead of the first All Blacks test on home soil in 400 days tomorrow.

Wellington hospitality and retail businesses are already seeing a profit boost after months of Covid-19 restrictions saw venues take a major hit.

“Definitely this weekend has been a boom in people and foot traffic; people walking in, buying…[you] can definitely tell,” Iko Iko manager Emma Smith said.

The Bonds Sports Bar manager Tom Higgins said he expects the bar to be full by midday tomorrow, ahead of the four o’clock kick-off, and is grateful the match can take place at Covid-19 Alert Level 1.

“Nothing's bigger than the All Blacks in Wellington I would say.”

Higgins predicts profits over this weekend starting from last night to be double what they normally are for the same period.

“For us it's great, obviously New Zealand's one of the only places in the world right now where you can go fill a stadium,” he said.

WellingtonNZ’s event general manager Warrick Dent said around $5 million is forecast to be added to local economy from the opening Bledisloe Cup match.

A spokesperson for WellingtonNZ said past All Blacks matches have been worth around $6 million to $8 million to the local economy.

“It has both a financial impact for the city but also a social impact in terms of that feeling, that people are happy to come back into the city and come together in an audience to celebrate a match,” Dent said.

“Out of region visitation will be a little bit down than it normally is and that’s in part because the match has had a really short sale period so it’s difficult for people to arrange travel,” he said.

As of Saturday, around 35,500 hundred tickets have been snapped up for tomorrow's game with 4500 still available.

Tickets are available from $80 for adults and $25 for kids.

Sky Stadium chief executive Shane Harmon said Covid-19 border restrictions and the fact tickets have only been available for purchase from this month are why the test hasn’t sold out yet in what is an “unusual period”.

In July 2019, 13,000 Kiwis from outside Wellington attended the All Blacks’ match against South Africa.

So far, 5000 visitors from outside the area are attending tomorrow’s test.

Ticket holder Eleanor Nixon said she’s looking forward to attending a live sports event again.

“I think it will be really good… went to a concert last night as well. Really exciting now in (Covid-19) level one to get back out into the community… do some fun stuff,” she said.

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